Word: truck
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...automobile industry, however, the bulk of the truck business is concentrated in a handful of companies. Ford and Chevrolet make nearly three-fourths of all U. S. trucks sold. Dodge makes another 10%. Biggest non-passenger-car truck builder is International Harvester, with still another 10% of the business. One good reason for Harvester's dominant position among the independents is the fact that one out of every four trucks is a farm truck. In the first ten months of last year these four companies sold 91% of all commercial vehicles registered...
Regarded as a non-passenger truck, though its maker is 51% owned by General Motors, is GMC, which accounts for about 2% of the business. Reo's famed Speed Wagons and heavy-duties run about 1 % in the registration figures. Studebaker and Willys each make a few thousand yearly, and the rest of the truck makers share a tiny market that is growing tinier. Prosperity returned only to the makers of light trucks last year...
Unit figures are somewhat misleading, since nine-tenths of truck business is in low-priced, low-capacity units. White Motor makes a zoo-passenger bus with a twelve-cylinder "pancake" motor (cylinders opposed horizontally instead of in a V), which sells for $16,000. A bus is only one unit in production figures, but $16,000 would buy 25 Chevrolet delivery wagons. A ten-ton Mack truck costs around $8,000 without body, a price which would purchase a sizable fleet of Dodges...
Assembled v. Manufactured. A common characteristic of the majority of truckmakers is that their product is assembled. Motors may be bought from Hercules Motors, Lycoming Manufacturing, Continental Motors or Waukesha, wheels from Budd, axles from Timken, brakes from Bendix. Diamond-T is the fastest selling assembled truck. Stewart and Federal are both assembled. "Assembled" is a fighting word in the truck in- dustry because companies that machine most of their own parts look down their noses at the assemblers, terming their own product "manufactured." This incenses the "assembled" truckmen, for the reason that all motor vehicles-trucks, buses and passenger...
...years Autocar was a popular passenger make, sporting a propeller shaft at a time when most cars were chain-driven. It pioneered the porcelain spark plug in the U. S., and its thread has since become standard for all spark plugs. In 1911 Autocar started to specialize on trucks, now makes models from 2%½ ton to 15½ ton capacity. An Autocar feature was long the under-the-seat motor, now being adopted by other truck makers. One advantage is increased payload per inch of wheelbase, an important factor because of legal limitations on truck lengths. Short trucks...